Tis the Season

Wow! It's already that time again! Adam and I have been on the look out for awesome Christmas gifts for everyone on our lists for a couple weeks now. The weather is finally getting cold and it's time for the Christmas Music!!!!  Anyway, here's a quick re-cap of October before I get so caught up in November and December that I forget about it!

The Boys have been loving the Raspberries all summer long, but I think they'd agree they taste especially good when they're cold and freshly washed by rain!

On our way to pick up the Big Christmas present for the boys, we saw this stop sign. Elliott Smith is Adam's favorite musician, and where Deegan's middle name (Elliott) came from, so we had to have a pic!

I have decided that during the warmer months, I may just install a porta potty and leave the boys in the backyard with some sleeping bags, they can live off the land for months! :-) Maybe just on the naughty days!

We had more apples this year than any of the years past. I gave away about half of them, left a ton on the ground to be thrown out because I didn't have time for them, and still got 32 quarts of apple sauce! Everytime Griffin goes outside he finds another apple to eat. I think Deegan has been helping some because he always seems to find the ones with no worm holes, luckilly!

Adam's mom throws a Halloween party every year for the kids (and adults I guess).  While we waited for the "party" to start, the kids played "Just Dance".  Deegan LOVED it and Griffin even joined in on the dancing!

Posing for a picture. I guess he was so into dancing that he just couldn't stand in a normal standing position!

Even though there's a whole room full of toys at Grandma Powell's house, Griffin's favorite toy is the wooden duck!

On sunday (Oct. 30) I decided maybe we should do SOMETHING with the pumpkins on our porch (we got 5 from our garden). They were too small to carve, and I was out of kid paint, so we improvised with our Mr. Potato Head parts. I think they turned out pretty dang cool. I'll probably be on the look out for cool potato head parts for all of the next year!

Halloween morning my friend Krista and her kids came over to play and make SLIME! It was really gross, but super fun!

Trick or Treating (this pic is super blurry, but I still think it's cute)

TOTing this year was super fun. Krista and her husband joined us and the boys and girl had a blast!  Griffin and Annie were more in to it than the older boys I think! Both were very protectinve of their candy and didn't want to get back in strollers once they were out! They were polite though. Griffin kept putting candy back in the people's bowls and even signed thank you at a few houses!  We were definately ready for bed when we got home, but it was fun while it lasted!

Figuring this 24/7 Mom thing out...

I'm still trying to decide if it's harder to be a stay at home mom or a full time working mom........ Of course, I LOVE that I am home with my kids all the time and I am loving that I can play and watch what they are doing, but when I was working I had (what I considered) a good excuse for taking time to myself to get away, even if the laundry wasn't done. Now I feel like "I'm home all day, why would I need a break when I didn't even do the laundry today?" I'm adjusting... I'm sure I'll find my balance, but I feel almost like a prison inmate that's been in prison for so much of his life that he doesn't know how to live in a normal world. I'm almost more overwhelmed by the thought of doing easy every day tasks (that I see all the other stay at home moms doing) than I ever was by work. Whatever the case, I Love being home, and still have no intentions of going back. So here's a quick recap of what we have been doing since August:

Deegan finally outgrew his little tricycle that he's been riding since he was like 18 mo. old, so we got a "Big Bike" to finish the summer off.

After a couple of weeks, the excitement wore off and he asked me to take it back to the store (I got it on KSL for $10) because he likes his "little bike" better. He's starting to ride the big one more now and Griffin has kind of hijacked the trike.

He Idolizes his dad! He tells me all the time that when he turns 5 he gets to go to work like his dad (you know, how most kids say "When I'm 5 I get to go to School"...) Whatever. He's going to be pretty disappointed when Kindergarten doesn't have a concrete mixer to drive!

(Before)

We FINALLY re-painted the bathroom that we've wanted to re-do for almost 3 years now. My network at work was having issues one day so I couldn't work, so I decided I needed a project for the day. I found a small one, but didn't have the supplies and the boys were napping, so I decided to start sanding the cupboards instead.... I don't think I thought very far ahead on that one because it was a MUCH bigger project than the few extra hours that I had, but atleast it got us started! I sanded, painted and then stained the cupboards then Adam (and Deegan) painted the walls. It looks MUCH better!

(AFTER)

(During! )

Half of a cow: 97 lbs ground beef and TONS of steak, roasts and stew meat!

First time mini- golfing!